This week’s episode of “Gotham” is all about introductions as “Harvey Dent” introduces the audience to an important character from the Batman canon and introduces two characters who will one day be very important to each other.
Let’s start with the man of the hour. Gordon is introduced to Harvey Dent by Montoya and Allen (although Allen doesn’t get to speak, poor guy), who vouch that the assistant district attorney is on the side of the angels. Getting him up to speed on the Wayne murders conspiracy, Dent almost immediately latches onto the idea that a Dick Lovecraft (a nod to author H.P. Lovecraft, whose work was the inspiration for Arkham Asylum) is involved. Lovecraft – who the audience has never heard of – is a corrupt business tycoon who apparently has had dealings with Falcone, Maroni, and Wayne Enterprises and has seen his profits double since Thomas and Martha were murdered. So Dent proposes they “try something,” use the story of a secret eyewitness (while leaving Selina and Gordon’s names out of it, like, good luck) to shake some information loose.
Now, I’ve never watched “Masters of Sex” so my only previous experience with Nicholas D’Agosto was his not-so-great stint on another superhero show, “Heroes.” But I liked him here in the role of Harvey Dent. He captured the character’s charisma, his ambition and arrogance, and I thought he had good chemistry with new ally Gordon. But I also think the show went too far, too fast with the Two-Face hints. Batman fans already know the tragic trajectory just from his name. His constantly flipping his coin was enough of a nod. Did nearly every shot of him need to have half his face covered in shadows? Did he already need to have an angry outburst hinting at the rage within him?
Elsewhere, in a moment I know a lot of you have been waiting for, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle finally, officially meet. Tinkly music as he first lays eyes on her reminds us that these two will one day occasionally make out while wearing masks. Gordon wants to keep Selina off the GCPD’s radar until a case can be made so he moves her into Wayne Manor, to Bruce’s quiet delight and Alfred’s disapproval. Their opposite experiences and upbringings make them an odd couple at first, but eventually, they find some common ground. And in a nice moment, they get to act like the children they actually are for a few minutes with a giddy food fight.
David Mazouz does a swell job playing Bruce’s infatuation, hilariously getting all, “What, not even!” when Alfred calls him out on his crush, his eyes going wide with embarrassed surprise when Selina asks if he’s ever kissed a girl. Very cute. And Camren Bicondova gets a chance to play something besides attitude in a scene where Selina spins a yarn for Bruce about her absent mother (I’m still convinced, by the way, that Falcone is going to turn out to be her father).
The case of the week starts out a little slow. An inmate named Ian Hargrove is broken out of Blackgate Penitentiary. A skilled bomb maker, at first it seems like he’s another Balloonman or Viper peddler, a disturbed soul whose good intentions were warped by Gotham (during an interrogation, his brother tells Gordon and Bullock that Hargrove only targeted the offices of weapons manufacturers). But it picks up steam when it turns out that it’s tied back to the ongoing mob tension. Fish Mooney is pulling the strings as she wants to strike back at Falcone. So she employs her deceased lover Nikolai’s men (a nice touch, I thought) to break out Hargrove and force him to build a bomb necessary to steal Falcone’s nest egg (I assume its location was in the information Liza stole last week). Pretty good scheme.
But what Fish doesn’t know is that the Penguin’s on to her scent. Using the tidbits he tortured out of Fish’s man, he tracks Liza to an apartment, the styling of which a) reminded me of the Penguin’s mother’s place and b) seemed an unlikely abode for Falcone to put up his mistress/Madonna. Anyway, one long, creepy whiff of lilacs on Liza’s scarf and later on Fish gives him all the confirmation he needs that the women are working together. And because Liza is kinda terrible, she immediately crumbles when he confronts her. So the Penguin has the ears of both Falcone and Maroni and now has Liza to leverage against Falcone and, more importantly to him, Fish.
Finally, the writers are really writing Barbara in circles, aren’t they? The episode begins with Gordon finding her note, saying she loves him, but that she needs time to get over her encounters with Falcone and Zsasz. Fair enough. But the episode ends with her in an embrace with Montoya. While I believe the more interesting story avenues for Barbara lie with Montoya, I don’t get what’s going on in her head as it seems to abruptly fluctuate week-to-week. Two episodes back, she loved Gordon so much that she faced off with a mob boss, but now it’s back to Montoya? She doesn’t want to be involved with a cop caught up in conflict with organized crime so she…runs to the bed of another cop caught up in conflict with organized crime? Doesn’t add up.
So what side of the coin did this episode of “Gotham” land for you? Share your thoughts on “Harvey Dent” in the comments section.
